Semiconductor Structures with Rare-earths

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses structures to increase carrier mobility using engineered substrate technologies for a solid state device. Structures employing rare-earth compounds enable heteroepitaxy of different semiconductor materials of different orientations.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/873,387 andclaims priority from Provisional Application 60/852,445 titled filed onOct. 16, 2006.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

U.S. Applications and patent Ser. Nos. 09/924,392, 10/666,897,10/746,957, 10/799,549, 10/825,912, 10/825,974, 11/022,078, 11/025,363,11/025,680, 11/025,681, 11/025,692, 11/025,693, 11/084,486, 11/121,737,11/187,213, U.S. 20050166834, U.S. 20050161773, U.S. 20050163692, Ser.Nos. 11/053,775, 11/053,785, 11/054,573, 11/054,579, 11/054,627,11/068,222, 11/188,081, 11/253,525, 11/254,031, 11/257,517, 11/257,597,11/393,629, 11/398,910, 11/472,087, 11/788,153, 11/873,387, 60/533,378,60/811,311, 60/820,438, 60/847,767, 60/852,445, 60/876,182, 60/905,415,60/944,369, 60/949,753, U.S. Pat. No. 7,018,484, U.S. 2006/0220090, U.S.2006/0065930, U.S. 2006/0197124, U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,453, U.S. Pat. No.7,023,011, U.S. Pat. No. 6,858,864, U.S. Pat. No. 7,037,806, U.S. Pat.No. 7,135,699, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,199,015, all held by the sameassignee, contain information relevant to the instant invention and areincorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is generally, but not limited to, the field ofsolid state devices. The instant invention discloses structures andmethods for optimizing crystal lattice orientation for variousapplications.

2. Description of Related Art

U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,036 discloses a method of growing GaN on AlN usingan optional buffer layer. U.S. Pat. No. 7,112,826 describes one methodof achieving a crystalline layer of GaN on a non-gallium nitridesubstrate or undersubstrate by facet growth. U.S. 2004/0099871 disclosesa method of growing GaN on silicon by forming silicon carbide on asilicon substrate. The prior art does not solve a key feature of theinstant invention, namely enabling growth of a layer of, for example,silicon on a silicon substrate with a thin intervening layer wherein thetop layer of silicon has a different orientation than the original layerof silicon.

The opportunities in substrate engineering comprising design andfabrication for conventional silicon or other material wafer replacementmay be grouped in at least two distinct groups—leakage reduction andmobility enhancement. Maintaining the pace of metal-oxide-semiconductorfield-effect-transistor (MOSFET) device scaling has become increasinglydifficult in the sub-100 nm gate length regime. Increased chipfunctionality and device performance drive further device scaling.However, simple scaling of the channel length and gate oxide thicknessis no longer sufficient to deliver the ˜17% yearly speed/powerperformance enhancement target for high performance logic devicetechnologies.

Modern logic design is based on complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS) employing both nMOS and pMOS transistors. The primary advantageof CMOS logic gates is that logic elements only draw significant currentbetween logic state transitions, thereby allowing power consumption tobe greatly minimized—due to negligible dissipation in the off-state.This is clearly an advantage for high densities of devices in ultralarge scale integrated (ULSI) circuits, such as, microprocessors andmobile devices. Unfortunately, sub-100 nm scaling of the channel lengthand gate oxide thickness adversely affects the off-state and on-stateleakage and the mobility of the fundamental carriers, electrons (nMOS)and holes (pMOS).

There are at least two types of leakage power (i) active leakage powerand (ii) standby leakage power. Active leakage power is defined asleakage power consumed by a nano scale CMOS system when it is doinguseful work and standby leakage power is consumed when the system isidle. The 90 nm technology node has seen leakage power increasing to asmuch as 40% of the total power consumed. The situation degrades furtherwith scaling to 65 nm and below.

A taxonomy of leakage sources include device short channel effects(SCEs) such as sub-threshold leakage current and threshold voltagechanges induced by the drain voltage (i.e.: drain induced barrierlowering, DIBL), and the high level of leakage current through theultra-thin gate dielectric. These leakage currents cause higher staticpower dissipation. Active switching power is another key problem where ahigher number of gates switching at high frequency with only modestreductions in supply voltage result in high active power density. Theproblems facing device scaling necessitate new solutions. The desiredsolution is one that enables continued critical dimension scaling athigh yield, increases MOSFET drive current while reducing source todrain and gate leakage currents, reduces short channel effects, andreduces the active power density.

In 1989, IBM introduced silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate toalleviate leakage issues. The result of this work was partially depletedSOI (PD-SOI) technology. In 1994, using a quasi-0.35 μm CMOS SOItechnology, PD-SOI was successfully implemented in the PowerPC 601 μP. A25-30% performance gain over bulk CMOS was demonstrated, however,significant material and SOI circuit design techniques needed to beprocess qualified. Presently, 130 nm and 90 nm CMOS PD-SOI CMOS isavailable as standard foundry libraries. SOI technology represents aparadigm shift in the design of CMOS architectures, by improvingperformance via increasing device current drive while reducing leakageand keeping the power consumption low.

However, the 90 nm node is characterized by adopting PD-SOI for onlyhigh performance applications, notably by IBM, Freescale and AMD. Todate Intel has the public position of not introducing SOI intomainstream production until the 45-32 nm node transition. Furthermore,Intel may resist introducing SOI products purely from strategiccompetitive reasons, such as not to give IBM/AMD and price advantage forhigher volume SOI substrates. Scaling from within the 65 nm to the 32 nmnode will require thinning of the PD-SOI physical structure towardsultrathin Si body and buried oxide fully-depleted SOI (FD-SOI). FIG. 1depicts the device and substrate evolution as a function of technologynode. Clearly, the present and future MOSFET architecture generationsare firmly based on SOI substrate technologies. Notably, the distinctionbetween the MOSFET structure and the SOI substrate is blurred and hasbecome intimately part of the front-end-of-line (FEOL) process. Devicearchitectures appear to remain planar and the vertical FET structureswill begin to be considered for the 32 nm node. High performance logicis introducing localized stressors to boost mobility by generatingtensile and compressive stress in the Si channel for nMOS and pMOSdevices, respectively. Global bi-axially strained Si techniques forelectron or hole mobility enhancement has been shown to be non-optimalfor CMOS application.

In parallel to high performance logic SOI applications, system-on-chip(SoC) applications are driving alternative SOI substrate solutions. SoCrequirements of low power operation, portable RF applications and mixedanalog-digital function drive implementation of high impedance SOI(HR-SOI). SOI offers advantages over traditional bipolar transistordesigns as the insulator offers considerable reduction in crosstalkbetween mixed analog and digital circuits on the same chip.Radio-frequency (RF) circuits such low-noise amplifiers, oscillators andfilters can be isolated via the substrate from the relatively noisyadjacent digital switching circuits via the insulating buried oxide.Introducing a high resistivity (p≧3 kΩ·cm) substrate beneath the BOXfurther reduces RF losses and capacitive coupling, which is advantageousfor passive elements such as inductors. RF-SOI has been demonstratedusing CMOS, BiCMOS and SiGe HBT processes. These processes offersuperior performance, functionality and cost compared to the nowobsolete GaAs and InP based technologies.

CMOS circuits have traditionally been fabricated on bulk siliconsubstrates with a (100) crystalline orientation due to the high electronmobility and reduced Si/SiO₂ interface trap density. Hole mobility,however, is low in the (100) orientation, due to the relatively heavyhole effective mass. Measured electron (μhd c) and hole (μ_(h)) mobilityfor (100) bulk Si is shown in FIG. 2 as a function of FET channelinversion charge N_(inv). Due to this large disparity in electron andhole mobility using conventional CMOS on (100) substrates, the drivecurrent in n-channel MOSFET is twice as large as p-channel MOSFET. Thispushes pMOSFETs to larger channel widths in static logic circuitdesigns. Therefore, pMOSFET performance lags considerably that ofnMOSFETs. High speed CMOS circuit designs can optimize speed viaemphasizing the use of nMOSFETs in dynamic logic—at the price of higherpower consumption.

The desire to improve device performance and reduce the predominantsub-threshold leakage current has led to small channel lengths andforced aggressive scaling of the gate oxide thickness (t_(ox)). Whent_(ox) is reduced below 2 nm, the gate oxide enters the direct tunnelingregime, and can exhibit leakage currents in excess of >10 A/cm². Highdielectric, high-k, gate oxide replacement offer potential solutions tothe direct tunneling leakage current. However, mobility for both nMOSand pMOS is considerably degraded using high-k gate metal oxidealternatives-due to poorer interface properties compared to gate oxidesusing SiO₂ or silicon oxy-nitrides (SiON). Therefore, there has been acompromise between low power consumption and high speed devices.Considerable efforts are now underway to create processes that increasethe mobility to compensate the negative aspects of mobility degradationdue to the introduction of high-k gate metal oxides e.g. Hafniumdioxide, HfO₂.

It is well known that considerable electron and hole anisotropy occursfor different bulk Si crystal orientations, for instance (100) versus(110), shown in FIG. 3 a and b. The measured carrier mobilities areshown in FIGS. 3 c and d for (100), (110) and (111) bulk Si surfaceorientations. The curves are for MOSFETs using SiON gate oxide as afunction of applied effective vertical field (proportional to thechannel inversion carrier density). The electron mobility degrades by afactor of two for the (110) orientation relative to (100), whereas thehole mobility increases by 2.5 times. This represents the trade-offbetween optimizing the two carriers simultaneously in a single substrateorientation. The introduction high-k gate metal oxide replacement inorder to exponentially decrease the gate leakage current is an importanttechnology solution for the 65 nm technology node and beyond. Metaloxides, such as HfO₂, and the respective oxynitrides, e.g, HfON, are theleading candidates for SiO₂ gate oxide replacement. However,introduction of HfO₂ generates several integration issues with (100)substrates. It has been widely reported for CMOS fabricated on Si(100)substrates that carrier mobility is lower in CMOS with high-k metaloxide dielectrics compared with conventional SiO₂ or SiON, possibly dueto fixed charge, charge trapping, interface roughness and remote phononscattering. FIGS. 6 a and b shows measured electron and hole mobilityfor various intra-planar directions for nMOS and pMOS fabricated usingSiON and HfO₂ and (100), (110) and (111) oriented substrates. Clearly,the hole mobility of HfO₂ (solid lines) is consistently lower than thatof oxynitride (dotted lines) on (100), (110), and (111) substrates. Holedegradation of about 5%-10% is observed for HfO₂ relative to SiON.Similarly, electron mobility degradation of HfO₂ devices mainly occursat low inversion charge density (low vertical field). Therefore, fixedor trapped charges in the high-k materials have significant deleteriousimpact on mobility. At high inversion charge densities where mobility islimited by surface roughness scattering, electron mobility on (110)surfaces is the about the same for devices with HfO₂ and SiON gatedielectrics. Note that due to charge trapping, there is an uncertaintyin inversion charge density which may shift the mobility curves of HfO₂relative to SiON in FIGS. 6 a and b.

Clearly, there is an advantage in orientation optimized substrates forSiON CMOS. The question is whether these relatively modest performanceimprovements are compatible with the large increase in substrate cost,process complexity and design optimization.

The “SOI-less”, direct-silicon-bond, DSB approach does not solve leakageproblems addressed by conventional SOI, however it does potentiallygenerate a relatively well understood FEOL process compared to theprevious two methods. Several issues still remain even for the DSBprocess. FIGS. 7 a, b and c and FIGS. 8 a and b are TEM's of directsilicon bonding. A high temperature rapid thermal anneal (900° C.) isrequired for SPE and the cost structure and layer quality of the initialhybrid substrate will be similar to conventional Smart-cut wafer bondedSOI. The increase in FEOL process steps and thus cost, coupled with thedefect density increase due to implantation damage may be limitingfactors. IBM has demonstrated that a thin Si(110) layer disposed on aSi(100) substrate can be completely transformed into a Si(100)orientation via Si implant disordering and subsequent SPE. FIG. 13 showsa 50 nm Si(110) converted to Si(100) with a relatively high damageregion ˜1500 nm below the surface of width ˜50 nm consisting of Sidislocation loops. This high defect region will act as a source ofcharge trapping and dopant non-uniformity for substrate biasing. Asleakage into the substrate and latch-up are always an issue, it isunclear how this defective region will interact within a CMOS circuit.Dislocation loops can be reduced via very high anneal (>1250° C.),however such high temperatures are problematic in 65 nm technologies andbeyond. Unfortunately, yet another process complexity is required whendense pMOS and nMOS devices are fabricated next to each other. FIG. 14shows a demonstration of 200 nm thick pMOS(110) region and SPE nMOS(100)region formed via an oxide spacer formed using shallow trench isolation.SPE Si seems to form corner defect regions near the oxide spacer edgeand therefore a source for charge trapping. Remarkably, the Si(110) andSi(100) interface boundary can be completely transformed to a singleorientation leaving no evidence of the wafer bond interface. Thisobviously places even higher cleanliness, defect density and particulateconcerns compared to wafer bonded SOI. The wafer bond interfaceparticipates intimately in the SPE process and therefore will affect thequality of final SPE recrystallized region. Compare this to aconventional wafer bonded SOI wafer which has the active thin Si layerBOX interface formed by a high quality thermal oxide.

So, in the final analysis the cost of the “SOI-less” DSB hybridorientation wafer, may actually be more expensive than a conventionalSOI wafer bonded substrate. As the hybrid orientation substratetechnology is intended for high performance applications it is unclearhow the tolerances can be relaxed to make the process cost effective,even without factoring in the added FEOL processing complexity.

Approaching the 32 nm node, vertical MOSFET structures such as theFinFET, may replace the planar MOSFET geometry. The conducting channelin a FinFET device lies on the sidewall of a silicon pillar. In astandard Si(100) wafer, where the gate and active fin area are alignedeither perpendicular or parallel to the wafer flat, the device channellies in the (110) plane. If the transistor layout is rotated by 45° inthe plane of the wafer, then the resulting orientation of the devicechannel is (100). An intermediate rotation yields electron and holemobility between that observed in the (100) and (110)orientations—approximating the mobility behavior of a (111) surface. Avery simple technique therefore, to achieve (100), (110), and (111)orientations using a vertical double gate FINFET is via drawing thedevices lithographically at different intra-planar angles relative tothe wafer flat or notch (FIG. 4). The optimum mobility scheme, in whichnMOS lie in the (100) plane and pMOS lie in the (110) plane, can beaccomplished by rotating the layout flat direction. This is accomplishedon a standard (100) surface oriented Si layer—without the need for acomplex and expensive hybrid orientation wafer. Note, for tri-gatevertical FET, the situation is considerably different. For standarddouble gate FinFET, the two gates act on the Si fin sidewalls, and thetop ridge of the Si channel is isolated. In a tri-gate FET, there arethree gates, two on the sidewalls and one on the top of the Sichannel/ridge. This design relaxes the Si thickness required for thefully depleted SOI structure and makes it approximately 2 to 3 timesthicker than the Si active layer thickness required for a conventionalFinFET. The key feature advertised by Intel as an advantage of thetri-gate structure is that the Si layer thickness (100-300 Å) of the SOIwafer can be thicker (and therefore more manufacturable), and scalesadvantageously with gate length. A problem with the FinFET is the findimensions are scaled more aggressively than the gate length increasingcost of lithography.

Due to the tri-gate structure (or indeed surround gate structures) thereis a negative impact on mobility because the orientation of the sidewalland top surface of the fin are different. The drain current will thus berelated to the weighted average of the mobilities for the twoorientations, which is dependent on the ratio between the fin width andheight. For a (100) wafer, devices will be of the (110) orientationalong the sidewalls and the (100) orientation along the top surface. Itis therefore impossible to fully optimize both nMOS and pMOS drivecurrents simultaneously (i.e., place the entire nMOS device in (100) andthe entire pMOS device in (110) because the orientation of the top finsurface will be shared by both device types).

Mobility enhancement via strain engineering is a major focus ofperformance CMOS enhancement. Compressive stresses can be introduced byshallow-trench-isolation (STI) towards channels longitudinally andlaterally. In the Si diamond crystal structure, mechanical stress breakscrystal symmetry and removes the 2-fold and 6-fold degeneracy of thevalence and conduction bands respectively. This changes the bandscattering rates and/or the carrier effective mass, which in turn affectcarrier mobility. However, nMOS and pMOS carriers have differentinteractions on the channel strain in three crystallographic directions.The mechanical stress on the device geometry, namely longitudinal,lateral and Si depth directions will therefore be coupled to electronicmodifications.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Structures and methods used to increase carrier mobility usingengineered substrate technologies are discussed and disclosed. Anoptimum Si device technology comprises nMOSFETs lying in a (100)oriented plane and pMOSFETs in the (110) plane. For planar MOSFETgeometries this is difficult—but could be realized by fabricatingpMOSFETs along an etched sidewall formed via a trench.

For a given Si (100) substrate, the dependence of planar nMOS and pMOStransistors disposed upon the surface at various angles relative to thein-plane bulk Si crystal axes can show significant hole mobilitymodification. FIG. 4 depicts 0.5 μm buried type channel MOSFETSfabricated on a (100) substrate with channel oriented at 0°, ±45°, ±90°relative to the wafer flat <110> direction. Up to 4% pMOSFET mobilitychanges can occur, without significant electron mobility degradation.

The potential use of alternative bulk surface orientations has beenstudied in the past and shown to be beneficial in improving pMOSFETdevice performance. However, practical application of such a scheme hasbeen limited by the degradation of device reliability due to interfacetraps at the gate oxide/bulk Si interface. Typically, for thick SiO₂gate oxide it is found that the interface quality is considerably poorerfor non-(100) surfaces. Recently, it was reported that with the gatedielectrics thickness now in the direct-tunneling regime, interfacequality is no longer dependent on the silicon crystal orientation. Thedifferent interface bonds at the Si—O interface is schematically shownin FIG. 5 a, b and c. The SiO₂ gate oxides in the ultrathin regime (˜2nm) deposited on (111), (100) and 4°-miscut (100) exhibited the sameuniformity and surface roughness. Reliability was found to be slightlyhigher in (111) case, with an enhancement in low field mobility for pMOSand degradation in nMOS. This removes the primary limitation ofnon-(100) silicon substrates using SiO₂ or SiON gate oxides, thus makingthem a viable option for the optimization of CMOS circuits.

In some embodiments of the instant invention an elegant solution to thecomplexity of generating hybrid orientation substrates is provided by atechnique termed “Epi-twist”. Epi-twist comprises single crystalrare-earth compounds, optionally, oxides, such as RE-Ox, depositedepitaxially on Si and/or Ge surfaces with (111) and (100) orientations;alternative orientations are possible also.

A new device structure is enabled by the use of single crystalrare-earth compounds termed silicon-on-nothing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

FIG. 1: Possible MOSFET device architectures to be used in present andfuture technology nodes.

FIG. 2: Electron μ_(e) and hole μ_(h) mobility for Si(100) surfaceorientation as function of carrier density (N_(inv)).

FIG. 3A: Electron and hole mobility for (100), (110) and (111) surfaceorientations for MOSFET using SiON gate oxide under applied electricfield.

FIG. 4: Intra-planar orientation dependence of MOSFETS fabricated on a(100) substrate surface with channel oriented at 0°/±45°/±90°.

FIG. 5: Oxidation of (111), (100) and (100) 4° offcut bulk Si surface.

FIG. 6: pMOS/hole mobility (a) and (b) nMOS/electron for various bulksilicon substrate orientations for Si-oxynitride (dashed curves) andHfO₂ (solid) gate dielectric as a function of channel inversion chargedensity.

FIG. 7: (a) TEM of DSB of 50 nm Si (110) & Si(100); (b) TEM of Siimplant and (c) SPE re-orientation to Si(100).

FIG. 8 a: Direct silicon bonding of hybrid(110 to 100) orientation and

a. (b) implant/anneal process used for Si(jkl)→Si(j′ k′l′).

FIG. 9: Schematic showing one embodiment of epi-Twist technology toepitaxially deposit a Si(110) or Ge(110) active layer via a tetragonalREOx on a Si(100) substrate.

FIG. 10 a silicon (100) unit cell; (b) RE-oxide unit cell.

FIG. 11 Oxygen mediated template epitaxy of tetragonal REOx on Si(100).

FIG. 12: Epi-twist used to fabricate selective area epitaxy of pMOS(110)and nMOS(100) in Si or Ge.

FIG. 13: Epi-twist process steps used to fabricate selective areaepitaxy of pMOS(110) and nMOS(100) in Si or Ge.

FIG. 14: Gate oxide scaling showing monolayer thickness of SiON requiredat the 65 nm node.

FIG. 15: Classical FD-SOI silicon layer thickness scalingt_(Si)=L_(g)/3, versus gate length.

FIG. 16 a, b, c, d: Key steps in Silicon-on-Nothing single gate planarMOSFET.

FIGS. 17 a and b: Silicon-on-Nothing with localized BOX.

FIG. 18: Silicon-on-Nothing, SON, L_(g)=80 nm MOSFET with the “nothing”layer=20 nm SiO₂ localized BOX beneath the UTB 20 nm Si channel. A 3 nm(30 Å) gate oxide and poly-Si gate electrode are shown.

FIG. 19 a and b: A model of thick, (a), and thin, (b), BOX layers andelectrostatic potential.

FIG. 20: Predictions of electrostatic integrity (EI) and requiredt_(Si), for planar single gate (SG)-SOI and double gate (DG)-SOI.

FIGS. 21 a and b: Silicon conduction and valence band energy-momentumdispersion of diamond crystal symmetry (a—left) unstrained; and (b) withBiaxial tensile strain.

FIG. 22: Bulk and biaxial tensile strained Si MOSFET showing effect onlowest lying conduction band energy ellipsoid distributions

FIG. 23 a, b, c: TEM photographs of the cross section of (110)strained-SOI MOSFETs and the lattice image of the strained-Si(110)layer.

FIG. 24: Schematic of ideal SiO₂/Si heterojunction with atomicallyabrupt interface.

FIG. 25: Single quantum well (QW) composed of wide band gap insulatorbarrier layer sandwiching an ultrathin narrow band gap Si or Ge layer.

FIG. 26: HRTEM and RHEED of epi-SOI featuring 18 nm Si active layer and6 nm BOX.

FIG. 27: RHEED of three layer epi-structure.

FIG. 28: Schematic of a four layer structure.

FIG. 29 a, b and c: Novel gate stack structure achieved by controllingthe oxygen concentration.

FIG. 30: HRTEM of single crystal rare-earth oxynitride insulatordeposited directly on (a) Si(100) & (b) Ge(100) surfaces.

FIG. 31: Novel gate stack structure for Si nMOS and pMOS devices usingsingle crystal gate oxide and single crystal Si gate electrode.

FIG. 32: Novel gate stack structure for Si channel nMOS and pMOS devicesusing single crystal gate oxide and single crystal Ge gate electrode.

FIG. 33: High electron mobility transistor based on Si/ErOx heterostructure with localized dopant sheet in the ErOx barrier.

FIG. 34 a, b, c and d; Schematic of thick channel SOI, (a) and bandstructure, (b) versus a thin channel SOI, (c) and band structure, (d).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Epi-Twist Technology

In some embodiments, Erbium or Ytterbium are used to form a cubiccrystalline oxide (c-ErOx), wherein x may range from 0≦x≦5. Theelectrical properties of ErOx, with a band gap of ˜6 eV, make it acandidate as an insulator and possible high-k gate oxide. The opticalrefractive index of ErOx is very close to stoichiometric siliconnitride, Si₃N₄. In some embodiments single process deposition ofepitaxial silicon is deposited on cubic-ErOx, with the rare-earth oxideitself deposited on Si (111) or (100) surfaces. The Si epi-layer retainsthe crystal orientation of the ErOx. The cubic-ErOx layer can bedeposited under conditions such that the initial Si surface orientationis transferred to the Si cap—thereby generating an epitaxial SOIstructure—epi-SOI. FIG. 9 is one example of an Epi-twist structure. Inthis example (110) ErOx is deposited on (100) silicon; sequentially(110) silicon is deposited on the (110) ErOx surface. Thus a differentsurface orientation Si(110) epilayer is formed upon the (110) ErOxsurface relative to the Si (001) substrate.

In some embodiments, a rare-earth is chosen to form a REOx with atetragonal unit cell, t-REOx; optionally a rare-earth compound may havea hexagonal unit cell; optionally a rare-earth compound may have awurtzite unit cell. FIG. 5 a, b and c depicts schematically a preparedsilicon (111), (100) and (100) 4° off surface terminated with oxygenatoms (gray). Similarly a Si(111) surface may also be prepared. Themonolayer of oxygen atoms line up along the <110> directions of thedimmerized Si(100) surface. The unit cells of Si (100) and thetetragonal-REOx (t-REOx) are shown in FIGS. 10 a and b. The tetragonalunit cell of the REOx has two equivalent axes of symmetry, 1105 and1107, due to rectangular shape, as are shown in the FIG. 11. Duringepitaxy of the tetragonal-REOx, the oxygen atoms template epitaxy of thet-REOx crystal. FIG. 11 also shows oxygen mediated template epitaxy oftetragonal REOx on Si(100) surface. During epitaxy of thetetragonal-REOx, the oxygen atoms template epitaxy of the t-REOxcrystal.

In one embodiment a relatively thin t-REOx layer is deposited (as low asa few monolayers), followed by epitaxial Si growth. The Si epi-layertakes on the orientation of the t-REOx. The two equivalent <110>orientations possible for the t-REOx result in crystal boundaries.Miscut Si(100) surfaces favor one orientation due to step flow. This istransferred to the Si epi-layer. Subsequent anneal of the structurerecrystallizes these defects to form a high quality Si epilayer with(110) orientation. This simple selective area epitaxial hybridorientation technique (SAE-HOT) is consistent with the requirements formobility enhancement for pMOS(110) and nMOS(100) using only epitaxialmethods. This technique can be far quicker and cheaper to implement thaneither Smart-Cut SOI or DSB approaches. FIGS. 12 a and b are examples ofachieving (110) Si or Ge devices, 1205, on a (100) Si substrate, 1201,with an nMOS device, 1210, formed on the original (100) substrate, 1201.Note the selective epitaxial growth of REOx, 1220, enabling theorientation change for device 1205. FIG. 12 b shows an alternativeconstruct.

FIG. 13 illustrates one process flow achieving device structures of FIG.12. A first step, 1305, starts with, optionally, a silicon wafer of(100) orientation. A patterning and etch step, 1310, defines thelocation of a future MOS device and oxidizes the side walls, optionally;in this embodiment a rare-earth oxide is deposited over the wafer andthen in 1320 CMP is used to remove the RE oxide from the field; in step1325 an epitaxial layer, optionally silicon, is grown of selectedorientation over the RE portion. Final device 1330 is produced bystandard processing after step 1325.

FIG. 14 shows bulk Si CMOSFET gate oxide scaling using SiO₂ and SiONdielectrics for various technology nodes, with interpolated year ofmanufacture. As the gate oxide thickness approaches a few monolayers ofSiON, the dielectric enters the direct tunneling regime and results inhigh gate leakage currents. An object of the present invention is theintroduction of rare-earth based high-k dielectric for use in deepsubmicron CMOSFETs.

FIG. 15 plots the variation of active Si layer thickness (t_(Si)) as afunction of gate length (L_(g)) and or technology node required toachieve fully-depleted SOI single gate planar CMOSFETs. It is an objectof the present invention to incorporate rare-earth based insulators foruse in fully-depleted epi-SOI structures. The scaling rule utilizedt_(Si)˜L_(g)/3.

It is an object of the present invention to integrate rare-earth basedmaterials for the purpose of manufacturing epitaxially deposited hybridorientation structures, and or FD-SOI and or high-k gate oxides. It isyet a further object of the present invention to integrate epitaxiallydeposited multi-gate structures using single crystal compositions ofrare-earth based materials.

Special Case of Silicon-on-Nothing (SON)—Ultrathin BOX

A new SOI structure is disclosed with a silicon film of 5 nm and buriedoxide of 20 nm, capable of suppressing SCE even at 20-nm channel lengthor less, which renders it competitive with vertical multi-gatestructures. The requirements on thickness of both the Si and BOX filmsneeded for such a SOI device exceed the present manufacturingcapabilities of Smart-Cut/wafer bond and SIMOX technologies. In thecurrent state of the art, the SOI film thickness ranges from 50 to 150nm with the uniformity of ±10 nm (100 Å) across the wafer. The buriedoxide is in the range of 50 to 400 nm, also with the uniformity of ±10nm. Note, this current level of thickness non-uniformity influencesapproaches relying on local thinning of the commercially available SOIwafers by for example using the LOCOS process, due to the transfer ofthe non-uniformity to the thinned SOI film. Therefore, the claimedadvantages of the layer thickness relaxation of the tri-gate discussedearlier come into doubt. In some embodiments of the instant invention aprocess called silicon-on-nothing, SON, enables fabrication of thedesired SOI device capable of quasi-total suppression of SCE and DIBLand excellent electrical performances due to an extremely thin silicon(5 to 20 nm) and buried dielectric (10 to 30 nm) forming the BOX.

FIGS. 16 a, b, c and d details key steps for prior art “SON”fabrication. The fabrication process of SON transistor starts from theconventional STI isolated wafers, FIG. 16 a. Then, the epitaxy of SiGelayer 1605 is performed, followed by that of a silicon cap layer 1610,which will later serve as the transistor channel. The role of SiGe isfor transferring the continuity of the lattice from the bulk to thesilicon cap, thereby providing a mono-crystalline structure. Bothepitaxial SiGe and Si layers can be much thinner and much bettercontrolled than in any conventional SOI technology, since the epitaxialprocess is capable of performing the layers of nanometer scale thicknesswith excellent uniformity and resolution below 1 nm. After the epitaxy,conventional CMOS process steps are carried out until formation of thespacers 1615. Next, using anisotropic plasma etching, trenches 1620 insource/drain regions are formed in order to open access to SiGe, whichis then selectively etched (via plasma).

The removal of SiGe from underneath the Si cap 1610 forms an air tunnel,which isolates the silicon film. The thickness of the tunnel remainsequal to that of the SiGe layer. High selectivity plasma etching process(more than 100:1 for 20% Ge mole fraction) enables formation of verylong tunnels ˜150 nm per side The Si film is attached to the gate viagate oxide, which in turn is attached to the substrate. This air tunnelgives the SON name to the new architecture. Despite the air tunnel, thegate does not collapse because it bridges the active area and issupported at both ends on the STI, as in FIG. 16 c. In the case of anempty tunnel, a passivation of its internal walls with a thin RTO oxideis used for preventing the tunnel from being refilled with silicon whenrebuilding the source/drain regions by epitaxy. The tunnel may also becompletely filled with a dielectric to form a super thin SOI-likedevice. After the lateral etching of SiGe and the tunnel formation, thetunnel can be optionally back-filled with a dielectric 1625. Thermaloxidation may be used for filling the tunnel with oxide. Afteroxidation, cleaning is carried out to prepare the silicon surface forthe consecutive selective epitaxy. Then, the trenches in the S/D regionsare filled with the selectively grown silicon. Implantation of thesource/drain regions and RTA step complete the front-end process. Theback-end process is conventional.

A cross-section of an exemplary prior art SON MOSFET 1701 is shown inFIG. 17 a and b. The BOX 1710 is not continuous (contrary to the case ofconventional SOI) and is located only under the gate and spacers. Theadvantage of such an arrangement is reduced series resistance and easiersilicidation, compared with conventional SOI of an equivalent siliconfilm thickness.

FIG. 17 b shows a TEM of a portion of a SON structure directly beneaththe gate oxide and 9 nm active Si layer, and back filled BOX.

In contrast to all other SOI fabrication technologies (SIMOX, BESOI,Smart Cut, ELTRAN, ELO, etc.), in the herein disclosed SON process, thesilicon film and buried insulator, both of nm-scale, are defined byepitaxy on a bulk silicon substrate. As complicated as the disclosedprocess seems, an even more complex process is proposed in the ITRS 2003emerging devices roadmap as a viable path at 45 nm and as a possiblecandidate as up to 20 nm technology node.

As shown in the TEM of FIG. 18, the SON (or SOI) transistors with verythin silicon films and thin buried oxide can be scaled down to 20-nmchannel length while still maintaining the subthreshold slope below 80mV/dec. It is interesting to note the body factor increases whenthinning the buried oxide—but even in the extreme case of t_(BOX)=10 nm,the body factor value relevant to SON devices is much lower than that ofPD-SOI and bulk devices.

The nomenclature of “nothing” in silicon-on-nothing is slightlymisleading in that the final device may have the region beneath thechannel filled with dielectric and the strength of process is being ableto form an ultrathin thin Si body and BOX. Unlike conventional SOI, SONdevices can have thinner BOX and is localized beneath the channel. Thispermits very shallow extensions and ground plane operation with deepheavily doped junctions just like in bulk Si MOSFETs. This feature keepsthe series resistance of a SON MOSFET low and is also essential forsilicidation that otherwise becomes problematic in the film MOSFETs.

The present invention teaches the use of single crystal rare-earthcompositions epitaxially deposited to form buried dielectric and thinfilm active layers directly. Furthermore, selective etching ofrare-earth based dielectrics can be used to remove the dielectric andform a true SON structure. Yet another object of the present inventionis the use of single crystal compositions of rare-earth basedsemiconductors exhibiting semi-metallic nature (e.g., REP and REN) andcan be suitable as a ground plane.

FIG. 19 shows the electrostatic field generated in thick (70 nm SiO2)and thin (10 nm SiO2) BOX FD-SOI CMOSFET, with t_(Si)=10 nm. The use ofthin BOX FD-SOI reduces DIBL and SCE and thus improves CMOSFETperformance. Clearly, epitaxial deposition of single crystalcompositions of rare-earth based materials and Si and/or Ge can be usedto achieve a thin BOX FD-SOI structure.

It is important to note that the SON process is extendable to themanufacture of planar double gate MOSFETs. The double gate planar MOSFETwith inherent suppression of SCEs allows scaling to the end of theroadmap where 10 nm channel lengths are necessary. The speed superiorityof double gate compared to single gate bulk is well documented. Severalissues come to mind relating to self-heating effects and mobilityincreased materials. The SON device intrinsically is prone to increasedself heating effects. This can be mitigated via the use of Si₃N₄ backfill, in some embodiments. The thermal conductivity of Si₃N₄ isconsiderably higher than SiO₂ and therefore, serves as a viablesolution. Alternatively, the use of higher thermal conductivity BOXlayers to manage self-heating effects is disclosed; as disclosed hereinRE compounds have higher thermal conductivity. Alternatively, the Sichannel layer is replaced with Ge.

To reduce the asymmetry in V_(t) shift, the effect of the drain fringingfield needs to be reduced, which can elegantly be achieved by reducingthe BOX thickness. A better SCE in thin-BOX devices requires lowerdoping (i.e., lower RDF effect) to achieve a target off current. ThinnerBOX also reduces the fringing field, which helps reduce the asymmetry inthe V, shift. However, with a thinner BOX, due to a stronger couplingbetween the front and back gates, the V_(t) becomes a stronger functionof the doping density. Due to these counteracting effects, it is notedthat reducing the BOX thickness t_(BOX)=60 nm→20 nm, initially increasesthe V_(t) variation (higher front-to-back coupling effect/body factor).However, for the case of a very thin BOX, t_(BOX)=10 nm, the variationtends to decrease (lower body doping and lower SCE).

A thin-BOX device structure is optimal for SRAMs in sub-50-nm FD-SOItechnology. The use of lower body doping and negative back gate bias canfurther reduce the variability in an FD-SOI SRAM designed with thin BOX.

The electrostatic integrity, EI, of a device reflects its resistance toparasitic two-dimensional (2-D) effects such as SCE and drain-inducedbarrier lowering (DIBL). SCE is defined as the difference in thresholdvoltage between long-channel and short-channel FETs measured using smallV_(ds). FIG. 20 shows example calculations for different technologynodes. DIBL is defined as the difference in V_(t) measured forshort-channel FETs using a small and a nominal value for V_(ds). A goodEI means a one-dimensional (1-D) potential distribution in a device (asin the long-channel case), whereas poor EI means a 2-D potentialdistribution that results in the 2-D parasitic effects (e.g., thick BOXSOI). A simple relationship between SCE and DIBL on one hand and EI onthe other has been established, as follows:

SCE=γ^(SCE)·(∈_(Si)/∈_(ox))(t _(ox) ·t _(depl) /L _(e)²)·φ_(d)≈2.0×φ_(d)×EI  (1)

DIBL=γ^(DIBL)·(∈_(Si)/∈_(ox))(t _(ox) ·t _(depl) /L _(e) ²)V _(ds)≈2.5×V_(d)×EI  (2)

where φ_(d) is the source-to-channel junction built-in voltage, V_(ds)is the drain-to-source bias, γ^(SCE)=0.80 and γ^(DIBL)=0.64 areempirical fit constants used to calibrate actual CMOS generations from0.7 μm down to 0.1 μm.

EI is given by:

EI≡(t _(ox) /L _(e))·(t _(depl) /L _(e))·(1+x ² _(j) /L ² _(e))  (3)

In the expression for EI, x_(j) denotes the S/D junction extensiondepth, L_(e) is the electrical channel length (junction-to-junctiondistance), t_(ox) the effective electrical gate oxide thickness ininversion equal to the sum of the equivalent oxide thickness of the gatedielectric, the poly-Si gate depletion depth, and the so-called “darkspace”), and t_(depl) is the depletion depth in the channel. Note, “darkspace” is the distance an inversion charge layer peak is set back in thechannel from the SiO₂/Si interface due to quantization of the energylevels in the Si channel quantum well.

All conventional devices use classical SiO₂, amorphous SiO₂ BOX,amorphous SiON (a-SiON) gate oxide and poly-crystalline Si (pc-Si) gateelectrodes. The use of poly-Si gate contact suffers increasingly frompoly-depletion effects as the MOSFET is scaled. Furthermore, dopantmigration from the poly-Si into the gate oxide is particularlyproblematic for boron. A possible solution is the use of single crystalGe (c-Ge) as the gate electrode—discussed later.

It is interesting to note the only practical method presently acceptedto form the planar DG FD-SOI MOSFET is via the silicon-on-nothingprocess described in detail earlier. The instant invention disclosessingle crystalline rare-earth oxide, oxynitride and other compounds asinsulators to enable a new method for fabricating planar DG FD-SOIstructures. In fact, these new metal oxides allow epitaxial depositionof single crystal Si and/or Ge on top of a REO_(x)N_(y) surface, in someembodiments. That is, multilayer single crystallinesemiconductor/insulator structures are disclosed. The utility of such anew material structure expands the device architectures possible andenables construction of ideal planar DG MOSFETs.

The strength of non-classical CMOS structures, in particular of UTBdevices, is clearly shown by the expression for EI above when applyingthe translation of parameters relevant to FD-SOI devices. ReplacingX_(j) and t_(depl) by t_(Si) (UTB single planar gate FD-SOI) or t_(Si)/2(UTB double gate FD-SOI) permits a considerable reduction in theX_(j)/L_(e) and t_(depl)/L_(e) ratios. Note, PD-SOI does not participatein the above advantage.

The equation below for UTB DG ensures good EI [70].

Double Gate EI:

EI≡[(t _(Si)/2)/L _(e)]·[(t _(Si)/2)/L _(e))]·(1+(t _(Si)/2)² /L ²_(e))≦ 1/25  (4)

SCE/φ_(d),DIBL/V _(ds)≦10%  (5)

This new form of EI ensures very good electrostatic integrity for devicescaling. The point here is, by just making the Si channel layersufficiently thin excellent EI is achieved without the need for heavychannel doping (enabling reduced RDF) nor any ultra-shallow junctionfabrication techniques. Note impurity ion scattering is a major sourceof channel mobility degradation. The instant invention disclosestwo-dimensional carrier transport in a channel free of impurity ionscattering.

FIG. 20 compares the EI between bulk Si planar, single gate (SG) FD-SOIand double-gate (DG) FD-SOI devices throughout the span of nodes coveredby the ITRS 2005. The t_(Si) scaling, although very aggressive, require4- and 5-nm Si films at the end of the roadmap for high performance(HP), low operating power (LOP) and low standby power (LSTP). Thepotential to scale CMOS using double gate (DG) FD-SOI to the end of theroadmap with the SCE and DIBL at the same levels as the 90-nm nodetechnologies is reassuring. EI≦10% (meaning DIBL of <25% V_(ds)) isassumed as the acceptable range as represented by the lower region inFIG. 20. Note, the EI of planar bulk is outside the allowed zone at the100-nm node for HP, near the 65-nm node for LOP, and between the 90- and65-nm nodes for LSTP products. Presently, the 2006 HP transition between90 nm and 65 nm node continues to use bulk Si even though an increasedEI penalty (EI˜0.13 @ 65 nm) has resulted. This is due to the technicaland economic issues relating to implementation of SOI. Therefore, thebenchmark for EI relating to singe gate (SG) FD-SOI is the 65 nm nodeusing bulk Si. Therefore, the EI levels achievable by SG FD-SOI allowcontinued fair EI scaling rules up to the 32 nm node—depicted by theblue region.

The introduction of homogeneous strain in a single crystal semiconductorproduces changes in the lattice parameter and crystal symmetry of thematerial. This in turn produces changes in the electronic band structureand vibrational modes. Homogeneous strain can be grouped into twocontributions: (i) isotropic or hydrostatic components, which give riseto a volume change without disturbing the crystal symmetry; and (ii) theanisotropic component which in general reduces the symmetry present inthe strain free material. The effect on the electronic states of thesemiconductor is to alter the energy gaps and remove degeneracy ifsymmetry is reduced. Effective carrier masses m* are affected by thevariations in the energy-momentum dispersion as well as by changes inthe interband matrix elements. The strain dependence of the electroniclevels is characterized by deformation potentials, (i.e., the energyshift per unit strain), typically in the range of 1-10 eV. A shift inthe phonon frequencies (i.e., vibrational states) of the solid occursdue to modification of the crystal symmetry. Si and Ge are indirect bandgap diamond semiconductors.

FIGS. 21 a and b schematically depicts the electronic band structuredispersions for the conduction and valence bands of bulk unstrained Si(left) and for the case of biaxial tensile strain (right). The wavevector k∥ lies in the plane of Si channel and k⊥ lies in a directionnormal to the plane of the Si surface, presumed to be along (001). Holepopulations of the HH and LH bands in unstrained Si are localized towave vectors close to the brilluoin zone-center, k˜0. The hole effectivemass is averaged between the HH (m_(HH)*=0.54) and LH (m_(LH)*=0.15).Under biaxial tensile strain the LH and HH bands split at k=0, and theLH becomes the maximal valence band. The separation of the LH and HHbands has several advantages for MOSFET dynamics. Intervalley scatteringbetween the LH and HH bands is reduced and the E-k dispersion is warpedsuch that the curvature is increased—thereby decreasing the effectivemass and increasing the carrier mobility, (μ=q_(e)τ/m*_(eff)). Theeffect of biaxial tensile strain on the conduction band also modifiesthe lowest lying electron band. The symmetry of the unstrained six-folddegenerate Δ₆ band is reduced with biaxial tensile strain and splitsinto a lower energy 2-fold degenerate Δ₂ and higher energy 4-folddegenerate Δ₄ multiplet. The Δ₆ energy ellipsoids depicted in FIG. 22are oriented along the principle wave vector directions as shown,becoming distorted with biaxial tensile strain. Reduced intervalleyscatter is also advantageous in MOSFET channel transport. FIG. 22 givesa schematic representation of the above.

In order to realize high-speed scaled CMOS devices, it is desirable toincrease the carrier mobility at the sub-100 nm regime. The draincurrent/drivability in p-MOSFETs, is dominated by lower inversion holemobility. The disparity between electron and hole mobility results in anunbalance between n- and p-channel drivability. Strainedsilicon-on-insulator (sSOI) CMOS devices on (100) surfaces can be usedto form a strained-Si channel with higher carrier mobility using arelaxed SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) substrate. As discussed earlier,p-MOSFETs on a (110) surface are also candidates for overcoming thisissue because the hole mobility on (110) surface is about two times ashigh as on (100) surface. However, the electron mobility of (110)n-MOSFETs is significantly lower and about one half of (100) n-MOSFETs.In (110)-surface CMOS technology the lower electron mobility is apotential problem for increasing the CMOS current drive. As a result,efforts to develop a new device technology for suppressing the loweringof the electron inversion mobility in the (110)-surface CMOS hasemerged. Tensile strained Si is a potential solution.

The (110) tensile strained-SOI substrate shown in FIG. 23 a, b and c canbe realized by epitaxially growing a 30 nm strained-Si film, 2310, on(110)-surface relaxed Silicon-Germanium-on-Insulator (SGOI) structure,2301. The (110) SGOI substrate was fabricated via Ge condensationtechnique of a 200 nm Si_(0.9)Ge_(0.1) layer deposited directly onto aSi(110)-surface. The initial Si(110) layer was a hybrid orientationwafer bonded SOI substrate with (111) cut plane (SOI parameters are:t_(Si(110))=35 nm and t_(BOX)=300 nm). SiGe layers with Ge concentrationabove 10% are known to produce deleterious crystal defects due to thelarge lattice mismatch and are limited via the critical layer thickness.Pseudomorphic (i.e., elastic) strained SiGe on Si(110) results in thehighest structural quality SiGe layer with minimal cross hatchingdefects, however, the in-plane lattice constant will be equivalent tothe underlying Si(110) in-plane lattice constant. Therefore, a Si(110)layer deposited on this relatively thin SiGe layer will potentially onlyhave lattice constant equal to unstrained Si(110). To produce aSiGe(110) surface with large in-plane lattice constant to allow a Siactive layer to undergo tensile strain requires the SiGe layer to berelaxed to its free-standing state. A method to relax the SiGe layerlattice constant is to form a relaxed layer via the aforementioned Gecondensation.

A 130 nm (110) relaxed-SGOI substrate was realized by thermallyoxidizing the strained-Si_(0.9)Ge_(0.1) layer using the Ge condensationtechnique at 1200° C. Ge atoms are rejected from the surface oxide layerdown into the remaining SiGe layer. The Si/Ge interdiffussion processdetermines the uniformity of Ge % within the remaining SiGe layer. Byappropriate choice of the initial Si(110) layer thickness, epitaxialllydeposited SiGe thickness, Ge % and thermal oxidation temperature/time arelatively uniform SiGe layer with increased Ge % can result viaselective Si consumption to produce the SiO₂ thermal oxide. Ge atomsdiffuse toward the Si(110)/BOX interface, and ultimately into the lowerSi(110) layer to form SiGe. The resulting thinner SiGe structure withhigher Ge content will be free standing if the lower Si(110) layer isalloyed. The topmost SiO₂ can now be removed and an epitaxial Si(110)layer deposited that will be strained to this relaxed SiGe layer. FIG.23 a shows TEM photographs of the cross section of (110) strained-SOIMOSFET 2301 and the lattice image of the strained-Si(110) layer 2310.The lattice image shows the smooth strained-Si surface. Process stepsfor Si(110) tensile strained layer is via epi strained-Si_(0.9)Ge_(0.1)layer on the Si(110)-surface bonded-SOI substrate followed by thermaloxidation process using a Ge condensation (Ge %) technique to relax theSi_(0.9)Ge_(0.1) layer and to increase the Ge content to 25% in theremaining SiGe and initial Si(110) layers. The topmost thermal oxide isremoved and epi-Si is deposited on the relaxed SGOI substrate. Ge %concentration versus depth is shown in FIG. 23( b).

It is worth noting, a very thick layer of SiGe can be deposited directlyon a Si surface, exceeding the critical layer thickness to producerelaxed SiGe. Graded Ge profiles and SiGe/Si superlattices can be usedto suppress threading dislocations, however the final material qualityis riddled with surface/bulk defects and non-uniformity. Typically, SiGelayer(s) in excess of 5 μm is required to generate relaxed compositionswith Ge %˜25%. Such a technique is not optimal and very expensive andtime consuming. Furthermore, it is well known that high quality SiGeepitaxy on (110)-oriented surfaces is extremely difficult.

The Ge-condensation technique solves the technical requirements forproducing tensile strained Si(110), however suffers all the costdisadvantages of wafer bond/Smart-cut with the added complexity and costof a tightly controlled epi/oxidation process to form the relaxed SiGetemplate followed by yet another Si epi deposition step.

FIG. 23 c shows the schematic two-dimensional energy ellipses for(110)-surface Si conduction band under tensile strain condition. It isexpected that the tensile strain parallel to the (110)-surface inducesthe energy splitting between the Δ₄ fourfold and the Δ₂ twofold valleys,leading to the Δ₄ energy level to be lower than the Δ₂ valley [11].Note, the energy level of the Δ₂ twofold valleys of the (100)-surface Siconduction band is lower than that of the Δ₄ fourfold valleys [12].Therefore, the reduced inter-valley scattering between the two- and thefourfold valleys can be reduced. For the case of strained-Si(110), shownin FIG. 22, the electron mobility has the maximum value along the [001]direction and the minimum one at the [110] direction, because theconductivity mass of the fourfold valley is the lowest along the [001]direction and the highest at the [110] direction. As a result, theelectron mobility, especially along the [001] direction, of the(110)-surface strained-Si channel structures can be enhanced, because ofthe reduced inter-valley scattering and the lower effective mass ofelectrons, similar to the case of electrons in the (100)-surfacestrained-Si n-channel.

According to the theory of the (110)-surface valence band modulationunder the compressive stress parallel to (110)-plane, it is expectedthat the Si(110) energy levels of the LH and HH bands will split by thetensile strain, resulting in the hole mobility enhancement by thereduction of the interband scattering between the light and the heavyhole bands—similar to the theory concerning the (100)-surface valenceband under tensile strain discussed previously. According to theanisotropic effective mass behaviors of holes at (110)-surfaceunstrained-Si channel it is expected the hole mobility has the peakvalue along the [110] direction and the minimum value at the [001]direction.

Strained-Si(110) CMOS devices have been experimentally demonstratedshowing electron and the hole mobility enhancement of (110)-surfacestrained-SOI devices amounts to 23% and 50%, respectively, against themobilities of (110)-surface unstrained MOSFETs (refer to FIGS. 2 and 6).As a result, the electron and the hole mobility ratios of (110)-surfacestrained-SOI MOSFETs to the universal mobility of (100)-surfacebulk-MOSFETs increase up to 81% and 203%, respectively.

Therefore, the current drive imbalance between n- and p-MOS can bereduced. The carrier mobility of the (110)-surface strained-SOI MOSFETsstrongly depends on the current flow directions. The electron mobilityhas the maximum value along the <001> direction and the minimum onealong the <110> direction. On the other hand, the hole mobility alongthe <110> direction is the maximum value, and that along the <001>direction is the minimum. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriatelychoose both the surface orientation and the current flow direction foroptimizing the (110)-surface strained-CMOS performance.

The gate delay time can be used as a figure of merit for quantifying theexpected surface orientation dependence of the strained SOI(110)CMOSFETs. Using the universal relationship between high field carriervelocity v_(c (c=n or p)) and the low field mobility μ(v_(c)∝μ^(0.42)),the gate delay time can be defined ast_(gd)=L_(eff)(1+v_(n)/v_(p))/v_(n)., where L_(eff) is the effectivechannel length.

The dependence t_(gd) on mobility enhancement and current flowdirections for strained-Si(110) and Si(001), taking the Si(100)-surfaceunstrained-CMOS as 1. The t_(gd) improvement is about 20% in the(110)-surface strained-CMOS is almost the same as that in the(100)-surface strained-CMOS. By optimizing the surface orientation to(100)/(110), the best solutions for n- and p-MOS are the (100)- and the(110)-surface, respectively, and the improvement of t_(gd) amounts toabout 30%. The optimal pMOS current flow direction is not surprisinglywith <110> channel directions only, due to the reduction in symmetry.This last point indicates that although there are significantimprovements in mobility to be obtained for (110) surface orientations,the orientation of the single gate planar MOSFET channel will be havehighly directional enhancement in current. Introducing biaxial tensilestrain will not only enhance the mobility but will also exacerbate thedirection asymmetry. The use of symmetric Si(111) surfaces on the otherhand, may potentially not provide as high a mobility enhancement, butmay provide less directional dependence in the channel currentenhancement.

The effect of stress along various crystal directions (e.g., (001),(110), (111), (211) etc.) on the electronic band structure of cubicsemiconductors is well understood. The modification of the electronicband structure and transport properties of Si and SiGe by the use ofuniaxial and biaxial strain has been discussed. Another mechanism thatcan be used to modify the electronic properties of ultrathin body (UTB)Si is via quantum confinement effect (QCEs). Unlike strained Si MOSFETs,however, investigation of UTB FD-SOI with Si channel layers approaching10 nm (i.e.; approaching quantum confinement effects) has not beenstudied in great detail. Conversely, quantum well and superlatticestructures composed of Si_(x)Ge_(1-x)/Si Ge/Si_(x)Ge_(1-x) and Si/Gehave been studied extensively—in fact they were the subject of intensetheoretical and experimental work dating back to the 1970's wheremolecular beam epitaxy techniques were first realized. Note thatSi_(1-x)Ge_(x) alloy has a smaller band gap semiconductor than Si,(E_(g)(Si)=1.12 eV & E_(g)(Ge)−0.66 eV). The complexity of Si-Insulatorheterostructures has historically been limited by the fact that nosuitable single crystal oxides/insulators have been available with therequired heterojunction conduction (ΔE_(c)) and valence (ΔE_(v)) bandoffsets with Si. The absence of epitaxial wide bandgap oxides/insulatorsplaces severe limitation on the construct of Insulator/Si/Insulatorquantum wells (QWs). Fortunately, Si forms an excellent native oxidewith unsurpassed interface quality and underpins the entire CMOSindustry. SiO₂ has a large effective band gap (E_(g)(SiO₂)˜9 eV withΔE_(c) and ΔE_(v) roughly equally partitioned) amorphous with no longrange crystallographic order-thereby limiting the construct ofmultilayer Si/SiO₂ structures with ultrathin layer thickness.

Nanoscale CMOS devices using bulk Si and PD-SOI have Si layer thicknessin the range of 0.05≦t_(Si)≦1 μm. By definition the gate oxide for aplanar gate MOSFET is required to have minimal leakage current and cantherefore be assumed to act as a potential barrier to both carrier typesin the channel layer.

The Si channel can be treated as bulk material with energy-momentumdispersion in the plane (E-k∥) similar to the z-direction, as shown inthe left portion of FIG. 22. A BOX layer will also behave as an energybarrier. If the insulator-channel interface is atomically abrupt, a welldefined discontinuity in the potential energy occurs with conductionΔE_(c) and valence ΔE_(v) band offsets. The electronic band structure ofbulk-like devices can be modified via strain but for the presentdiscussion will be assumed to be unstrained. Bulk-Si and PD-SOI devicesalike exhibit similar channel transport with electronic energies forminga continuum in the conduction and valence bands of Si—potentiallyconfined via the SiO₂ barriers from tunneling and thermionic emissionalong the z-direction.

Nanoscale CMOS devices using FD-SOI have Si layer thickness in the rangeof 50≦t_(Si)≦250 Å and FD-GOI 50≦t_(Ge)≦500 Å. A 2-D quantum well (QW),FIG. 25, is a potential well that confines carriers in one dimension,forcing them to occupy a planar region. The effects of quantumconfinement take place when the quantum well thickness becomescomparable at the deBroglie wavelength of the electrons and holes,leading to energy levels called energy subbands E^(i=e,h) _(n), i.e.,the carriers can only have discrete energy values. Therefore, for FD-SOIwith gate oxide, the Si channel layer becomes the QW.

The unique confinement effects of the QW in the FD-SOI structuredistorts the E-k∥ dispersion and decouples the HH and LH energy bands.The quantization energies of electron and hole subbands primarily dependon the carrier effective masses, the QW width and the height of thepotential barriers.

Typically, the onset of quantization effects in FD-SOI does not occuruntil t_(Si) approaches 100 Å. The deBroglie wavelength is inverselyproportional to the effective mass (λ_(e)∝1/m*), and therefore lightercarriers such as electrons and LH become confined with physically largerQW dimensions. For Si, channel layers approaching 100-150 Å experiencequantization effects. The quantum confinement modifies the energydispersion close to the extrema such thatE(k)=E(k⊥,k∥)=(/2)(k⊥²/m_(T)+k_(∥) ²/m_(L)), where the Si and Geelectron effective masses are m_(T)*_(e)(Si)˜2.32×m_(T)*_(e)(Ge).Therefore, the approximate FD-GOI channel layer thickness where QCEswill become important will be in the range ˜230-350 Å.

FIG. 25 shows a schematic quantum well (QW) composed of wide band gapinsulator barrier layer sandwiching an ultrathin narrow band gap Si orGe. The potential energy discontinuity is indicative of an atomicallyabrupt interface. For well thicknesses L_(w) in the range of thedeBroglie wavelength quantization of the allowed energy levels in QWoccurs. The trend in the quantized energy levels as L_(w) is reduced inthickness is shown.

FIG. 24 a schematically shows a conduction band energy profile as afunction of direction vertically through a CMOSFET comprising SiO₂/Siheterojunction. FIG. 25 schematically shows a single gate planar fullydepleted GOI MOSFET, approximated as an ideal QW. Note the potentialenergy diagram is equally applicable to an ultrathin channel double gateMOSFET. The number and energy separation of quantized energy levels inthe well depend strongly on the well dimension. As L_(w) becomessignificantly smaller than the electron deBroglie wavelength, the energyseparation ΔE of the first quantized energy level E^(e) _(n=1) relativeto the bulk well material conduction band edge E_(c) ^(QW) increases.For the extreme case of L_(w)˜0.1λ_(e), the quantized electron energyE^(e) _(n=1) (k⊥) is allowed only for relatively high energies in thepotential well. For the case of FD-GOI, if L_(w) is scaled aggressivelysuch that L_(w)˜0.5λ_(e), the simple single conduction band approachwill breakdown and higher energy conduction bands will need to beincluded.

In summary, both strain and QCEs can significantly modify the bulk Siand Ge electronic bandstructure. Single and double gate FD-SOI and GOIwith active layer dimensions of the order of the deBroglie wavelength ofelectrons require QCEs to be fully accounted for. Pseudomorphicallystrained single crystal insulator/semiconductor QWs furthersimultaneously affect both strain and QCEs. For the case of the presentinvention utilizing REOxNy/Si/REOxNy heterostructure, the strain andQCEs can be tuned via REOxNy composition and layer thickness.

The advantage of a planar, double gate MOSFET, DG-MOSFET, is thedrastically improved electrostatic integrity performance for highlyscaled devices. Approaching the 22 nm node the planar single gate FD-SOIMOSFET significantly compromises good EI design rules. The double gatedevice designs at present predominantly favor the use of verticalchannel devices such as the FinFET, however basic design issues relatingto the manufacturability of the underlying conventional SOI substratetechnology has been questioned. The vertical channel DG devicerepresents a fundamental CMOS processing change and will incur a largecost penalty. The advantages of good EI and packing density may not beenough to assure vertical channel introduction into mainstreammanufacture. Switching from conventional planar to thick BOX SOI FinFETsmeans changing from conventional four-terminal devices to three-terminalfloating body devices. This narrows the circuit operation because of thethree-terminal characteristics. Four terminal body-tied FinFETstructures rely only on bulk-Si substrates, however, the sameinter-device leakage problems faced by present day bulk-Si CMOS remains.Therefore, the simultaneous low power application of such a designmethodology comes into question even though the advertised advantagesare low wafer cost, defect density, no floating-body effect and betterheat dissipation compared to SOI FinFETs. Regardless of whether bulk orSOI FinFET design is used, vertical channel devices rely on aggressivelithography performance, potentially requiring channel layers to bescaled with significantly higher precision than the gate length. Atechnique to preserve the planar processing methodology and generate therequired DG structure was discussed earlier via the SON process.

Idealized planar double gate, DG, device designs are differentiated byuse of conventional SOI substrate, selective area epitaxy of SOI and theuse of single crystal insulator. Furthermore, the introduction of Geinto either or both the channel and gate electrode region is disclosed.Strain can be adequately introduced via SiN cap stressors.Alternatively, the use of single crystal insulators as gate oxides andor oxynitrides affords a unique advantage for gate stack design.

In one embodiment a CMOSFET comprising a Si channel, can be tuned to bein tensile or, optionally, compressively strained via the use of singlecrystal gate dielectric and gate stack compositions. For example, a Sichannel can be utilized with single crystal REON dielectric andsubsequent doped single crystal Ge gate contact. The REON and Ge layersimpart opposite stressor components to the Si channel by virtue ofdifferent lattice constants relative to Si. Alternatively, a CMOSFETcomprising a Ge channel may be tuned in a similar fashion.

Current demands for a system-on-chip device integrating digital logicand memory are increasing. Integration of mixed analog (e.g., RFtransceivers, analog-to-digital conversion and low noise amplifiers) anddigital logic functions is also necessary for mobile device libraries. Akey enabling technology is to fabricate high speed and low-powertransistors on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. However, the BOX layerrequires an optimized fabrication process and design for the SOI-baseddevices. Some devices, such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs)with deep trenches as a storage node, cannot easily be embedded withother devices on an SOI wafer with conventional DRAM processes for abulk silicon wafer. This is because the trench depth is typically 5 to10 μm—much larger than the thickness of an SOI layer. A floating bodycell (FBC) is one of the candidates for embedding DRAM with SOI.However, a floating body effect potentially causes data sensing errorsin the FBC and deteriorates the DRAMs' performance.

A hybrid SOI wafer having both an SOI region and bulk-silicon region isa candidate technique for realizing the embedded device on an SOI wafer.Since there is no BOX layer in the bulk-silicon region, a hybrid-SOIwafer enables a flexible design of the device, and various embeddeddevices can be fabricated with conventional processes used in thefabrication of the devices on a bulk-silicon wafer.

Germanium MOSFETs were abandoned forty years ago because Ge lacked areliable and native insulator like SiO₂. The recent introduction ofhigh-k gate dielectrics, coupled with the higher inherent mobility of Genow makes Ge MOSFET an attractive evolution. Germanium has a higher lowfield electron and hole mobility compared to Si and therefore offers thepotential of higher drive current. Silicon is by far the most usedsemiconductor. The electron mobility is modest compared to others,however as discussed before nMOS and pMOS are required for modern CMOS.Therefore, hole mobility must be considered on an equal level whenconsidering alternatives. Clearly, Ge provides an excellent increase inboth electron and hole mobility. There exists other III-V and II-VImaterials with higher mobility, but they suffer from very smallelectronic bandgaps and or very low melting points (e.g. InSb and HgTe).The CMOS industry is most comfortable with Ge chemistry and has a longhistory of use.

As has been published frequently, the electron mobility as a function ofthe inversion charge for SOI devices with the film thickness t_(Si)=3-20nm as a parameter (a thick BOX is assumed) declines by nearly a factorof two with Si film thickness at low fields (inversion). This is due tothe variation in quantization of electron energy levels within the Siquantum well sandwiched between two SiO₂ potential barriers (viz.: gateoxide and BOX) as a function of t_(Si).

Clearly, the Ge(111) orientation is superior to both (100) Si and Ge, intwo respects. First, the mobility of ultrathin Ge(111) films is greatlyenhanced. Second, there is a relatively large mobility enhancement ofGe(111) over a wide range of film thickness. The mobility enhancement ofGe(111) can improve the MOSFET GOI drive current. Therefore, it wouldseem, that ideal choice for next generation mobility enhanced channelreplacement material would be Ge and further preferably Ge(111)orientation.

There are recent efforts for realizing various Ge channel layers on bulkSi and insulating structures, (A) Smart-Cut wafer bonding; (B) Directepitaxy of Ge onto Si(100); (C) Ge condensation technique; and (D) Smallarea seeded Ge epitaxy flow on SiN amorphous layer. Wafer bonding usingconventional Smart-cut SOI process is appealing but large Ge bulk wafersare very costly and only available up to 200 mm in limited volume. Thisprecludes 300 mm GOI manufacture at present. Umicore, is the only largewafer diameter Ge(100) CZ wafer producer and has only recentlydemonstrated proof of concept 300 mm CZ Ge(100), (Umicore recentlyjoined forces with SOITEC). To circumvent the 200 mm bulk Ge waferlimitation, epitaxial Ge can be deposited using a hydrogen mediated lowand high temperature deposition technique. However, due to the largelattice mismatch between Si and Ge (4.2%) a thick (>250 nm) highlydefective Ge buffer is required before relatively low defect densityepi-Ge can be grown suitable for channel material. If this approach isused to generate a Ge layer suitable for Smart-Cut layer transfer then ahigh quality Ge layer greater than 200 nm is required to accommodate theH-cleave layer. Furthermore, multiple recycling runs would be requiredto make wafer bond economically viable. COP defect reduction isnecessary in high quality CZ Si substrates. In either Ge epi layers orbulk transferred layers, COP defects in Ge have not been studied. TheGe-condensation technique is appealing for thin film GOI. A SiGe layeris oxidized using the selective oxidation of Si to leave behind a Gefilm. Unfortunately, the problems of high levels of threadingdislocations and cross-hatching inherent in the initial high Ge % SiGelayer deposited is transferred to the remaining Ge film. Seeded flow ofGe on SiO₂ and or Si₃N₄ films has also been demonstrated using LPEtechnique. This is a very high temperature and small area technique.

The instant invention discloses an epitaxial technique capable ofdepositing thin film single crystal insulating oxide on Si(100) andSi(111) surfaces. In some embodiments, additional Si and Ge films aredeposited in the ultrathin regime (1-1000 nm) upon a thin film singlecrystal insulator suitable for fully depleted SOI and GOI on (100) and(111) orientations. Ge(111)-on-insulator is obviously and excellentopportunity for an epitaxial technique as the process is simple, costeffective and can provide the layer thicknesses required in both thechannel layer and BOX. The present invention discloses aGe(111)/REON/Si(111) hetero structure suitable for FD-GOI utilisinglarge area single crystal bulk Si substrates.

Self-heating effects observed in Si CMOS FETs and SiGe HBTs fabricatedon SOI substrates are problematic for high performance designs.Conventional SOI substrates have a low thermal conductivity insulator(SiO₂ is ˜100 times less than Si) layer that reduces conduction coolingfrom the device layer through to the bulk Si substrate.

Thermal analysis of typical CMOS structures show the relative coolingpaths for Joule heat dissipated in the FET channel is via only 19% heatflow from the device to the SiO₂ layer and into the substrate. Theremaining 25% flows out through the gate and 56% flows out through themetal interconnects. Therefore, the penalty using conventional SOI is anincreased device operating temperature (120-300 deg C.). Furthermore,thermal conductivity of SiGe is 15 times less than Si. Therefore,increased device temperature negatively affects performance of bothstrained Si/SiGe FETs and SiGe HBTs and is increased further in SOIstructures. The mobility of electrons and holes are further degradedwith increasing temperature. Therefore, local self-heating in SOI andGOI can be a concern for devices that are used in the on-state most ofthe time or for circuits with a high duty cycle. Scaling the Si filmthickness degrades the thermal conductivity and increases the thermalresistance, with thin Si and thick BOX as the worst case.

A simple counter measure is to scale down the BOX thickness. A factor of3 improvement in thermal conductance can be achieved by reducing the BOXthickness from 150 nm to 20 nm. Another approach is to introduce a highthermal conductivity material as the buried dielectric. There areseveral options but silicon nitride appears to be the most attractiveone. It is an industrially mature material, it exhibits an order ofmagnitude higher thermal conductivity than SiO₂ and it is a wellcharacterized insulator. It has been shown that a compositenitride/oxide buried dielectric is a viable approach for an improvedthermal conductivity substrate. Alternatively, the present inventionteaches the use of rare-earth oxynitride composition for use as highthermal conductivity BOX layer.

GOI MOSFETs potentially may suffer from lower thermal conductivity of Gerelative to Si (Ge is 40% less than Si). Coupled to a thick SiO₂ BOX,thermal management of GOI will be an issue. For the case of thin Gefilms, recent calculations suggest that thin Ge films take a lowerthermal conductivity penalty than thin Si films. A higher thermalconductivity BOX for GOI would obviously prove beneficial.

The desirability of ultrathin Si layers on insulator is presentlyhampered by layer non-uniformity and cost. The thermal conductivity ofthe BOX is becoming problematic in SOI due to the large thermalresistance of the BOX layer. The simple scaling of the silicon activelayer thickness of FD-SOI has also been shown to breakdown due to shortchannel effects. A necessary step for mitigating the SCEs in FD-SOI is ascaling of the BOX from thick to thin layer dimensions, potentially asthin as 10 nm. The effect of such a thin BOX does increase capacitancein single gate planar MOSFETs via the channel to BOX coupling. However,the net benefit of reduced SCEs, better thermal management, the use ofgrounded planes or high resistivity beneath the BOX, and decreasedmobility degradation more than compensate. The disclosed process knownas Silicon-on-nothing further establishes the primary requirement innanometer FD-SOI MOSFETs for continued performance.

The present invention teaches that using single crystal rare-earthoxides and oxy-nitrides is extremely useful for generating epitaxiallygrown FD-SOI structures. FIGS. 26 and 27 show RHEED patterns of both therare-earth oxide layer and the Si active layer generating a fullyepitaxial and fully depleted epi-SOI structure. Thick or thin Si andinsulating rare-earth oxides and oxy-nitrides and/or oxy-phosphides canbe grown. The layers are atomically flat and the Si/oxide interface isof gate oxide structural quality. The epitaxial technique can be used toeither generate full wafer FD-SOI structures, or selective area growth.Therefore, a planar single or double gate MOSFET structure as describedin essence by the complex SON process, would be trivial using therare-earth oxide/Si epitaxial method; for instance see FIG. 28 whichshows schematically epitaxial planar double gate FD-SOI structure usingrare-earth gate oxides. An advantage of such an epitaxial depositionapproach toward realizing SOI structures is that the technique is wellsuited toward FD-SOI layer thickness and has the uniformity andthickness control afforded by a layer-by-layer epitaxial method.

A possible hurdle to overcome for planar single gate MOSFET usingepi-SOI technique is the fact that rare-earth oxides exhibit relativelylarge dielectric constants, κ˜15, compared to SiO₂. The ratioκ(ErOx)/κ(SiO₂)˜3.8-5.1, compared to κ(Si₃N₄)/κ(SiO₂)˜1.9. Comparingconventional SOI to epi-SOI by requiring the same dielectric coupling ofa single gate

FD-SOI MOSFET with 10 nm SiO₂ BOX with that of an ErOx BOX, the high-kinsulator thickness needs to be 38-51 nm in thickness. ErOx layers asthick as several 100 nm are possible. Therefore, such a designconstraint does not pose a problem. Conversely, the very fact that theBOX is high-x allows the ideal construct of a planar double gate MOSFETwith ideal body factor n=1.0.

Realistically, for FD-SOI at 45 nm and beyond, the gate oxide thicknesswill be t_(GOX)=1-2 nm and have a high-k dielectric constant ofκ_(G)(HfO₂)˜22. If a high-k BOX layer using ErOx is used withκ_(BOX)(ErOx)˜15 (refer Table I), then the body factor for a symmetricplanar single gate FD-SOI MOSFET can be estimated asn=l+(κ_(G)·t_(BOX))/(κ_(BOX)·t_(GOX)).

For t_(GOX)=1 nm, the body factor for BOX thickness in the ranget_(BOX)=10-100 nm, changes by n=1.0682-1.00682, respectively. Comparingwith a conventional SiO₂ BOX with k(SiO₂)=3.9 and t_(BOX)=10-100 nm, thebody factor varies as n=1.0178-1.00178. Clearly, the body factorincrease due to a high-k BOX is not an issue. Also, mentionedpreviously, a thin high-k BOX is further advantageous for reducing SCEs.

The scaling of the BOX is ultimately in the range 18≦t_(BOX)≦44 nm inthe near term and 8≦t_(BOX)≦28 nm in the longer term. The fact thatthese regions are red, indicates neither wafer bond/Smart-Cut nor SIMOXapproaches are feasible at present. An ultra-thin BOX increasescapacitance coupling between source, drain and channel with theconducting substrate compared to thick BOX planar single gate MOSFETs.This has the potential of reducing speed but drastically improving theelectrostatic integrity (EI) of the device. The speed can be traded offagainst improved EI by reducing the channel doping, that eventuallyleads to improved speed for constant I_(off).

An added benefit of RE-Ox BOX layers is the higher thermal conductivityrelative to SiO₂. The heavy rare-earth metal oxide exhibits considerablyhigher thermal conductivity and is therefore beneficial in reducingself-heating effects.

When a lower dielectric constant BOX layer is desired and SiO₂interfacial layers required (for increasing the effective band gap ofthe BOX), an epitaxial structure as shown in FIGS. 29 a, b and c show apossible embodiment. The concept of introducing an oxygen excess duringdeposition of the single crystal REOx layer allows a concentration ofoxygen to exist within the oxide structure as a function of growthdirection. The oxygen excess contained within the REO_(X) lattice ismaintained such that subsequent Si epitaxy is not affected; singlecrystal Si can be deposited upon an REO_(x) insulator layer with thesame crystal orientation as the underlying Si substrate. A postdeposition anneal is used to force an interfacial reaction between theoxygen excess and the Si atoms at the interface, thereby consuming anyexcess mobile anions and producing an SiO₂ interfacial layer. Theinterfacial SiO₂ layer is self terminated and the thickness isdetermined by the oxygen excess. This technique allows the singlecrystal Si cap layer to remain structurally perfect. The effectivedielectric constant of a composite BOX layer is now determined by theratio of the thickness of REOx relative to SiO₂. Note, the converseprocess of depositing Si on an amorphous SiO₂ layer results in amorphousSi.

An interesting situation arises for FD-SOI transition to FD-GOI MOSFETs.The replacement of SiO₂ (κ=3.9) by HfO₂ (κ˜22), has shown that electricfield fringing effects between the gate and source/drain are problematicfor Si channels (κ(Si)=11.7). Introducing GOI, means the Ge channellayer has a ˜38% higher dielectric constant relative to Si. If thedielectric constant mismatch between the gate-oxide material and thechannel is defined as Δκ=(κ_(GOX)-κ_(CH))/κ_(CH), then the dielectricconstant mismatch between the gate oxide and the channel layer ispotentially lower for Ge (Δκ=36%) relative to Si (Δκ=88%).

The epitaxial growth of single crystal Germanium on various rare-earthoxides and oxynitrides is also possible via the present invention. FIGS.30 a and b show HR-TEM of single crystal ErO_(x)N_(y) insulating layerdeposited with zero defect density on Si(001) (a) and (b) Ge(001)surfaces. Furthermore, rare-earth oxides and or oxy-nitrides have beenshown to deposit epitaxially on both Ge(111) and Ge(100) surfaces.Clearly, the opportunity exists for an elegant epitaxial method for therealization of GOI on (100) and (111) oriented Si substrates. Theadvantage is that high quality commercial Si substrates need only beused.

For completeness, a general observation can be made for FD-SOI regardinginterface scattering that adversely affects the mobility, in particularthe hole. Referring to a fully depleted MOSFET with a metal gate stack,two regimes are examined, the thin and thick BOX configuration, keepingall other layers constant. For ultra thin channel layers, quantizationeffects become important. The carrier localization with thick BOX isskewed toward the high-k gate oxide and therefore will be moresusceptible to interface scatter and therefore mobility degradation. Forthe case of the thin BOX, the effective carrier wavefunction in thevertical, is delocalized and penetrates significantly into thesubstrate. The thin BOX situation potentially allows the FD MOSFETdesign to be made less susceptible to interface scattering, which isadvantageous.

In some embodiments a gate oxide for Ge MOS is single crystal rare-earthoxynitrides epitaxially deposited on Ge (001) and Si(001) orientedsurfaces. By introducing nitrogen into the binary oxide, oxygenvacancies can be modified and the lattice constant tuned forpseudomorphic growth. Alternatively, other rare-earth compositions areemployed.

Generating a gate stack consisting of a single crystal gate oxidefollowed by a single crystal Si and or Ge gate electrode offers severaladvantages. The diffusivity of impurity dopants in the gate electrode issubstantially less in single crystal semiconductors compared toamorphous and or poly-crystalline materials. Gate depletion effects maybe superior using narrow band gap gate electrode, such as Ge.Conversely, the gate depletion effect may be worsened—therefore furtherwork is required to understand the pro's and con's of such an approach.

FIG. 31: Novel gate stack structure for Si nMOS and pMOS devices usingsingle crystal gate oxide and single crystal Si gate electrode.Optionally, germanium and/or germanium-silicon alloys may be used.

FIG. 32: Novel gate stack structure for Si channel nMOS and pMOS devicesusing single crystal gate oxide and single crystal Ge gate electrode.Optionally, germanium and/or germanium-silicon alloys may be used.

FIG. 33 shows an example of a high electron mobility transistor based ofSi/ErOx hetero structure with localized dopant sheet in the ErOxbarrier. Optionally, germanium and/or germanium-silicon alloys may beused.

FIG. 34 depicts energy diagrams and band structures for thick channelSOI, FIG. 34 a with corresponding band structure, FIG. 34 b; thinchannel SOI, FIG. 34 c with corresponding band structure, FIG. 34 d.Note the separation of the hh band, 3401, and the 1 h band, 3405,occurring in the thin channel structure, 3410 and 3415.

By adequate nitrogen profile tuning, a GOI structure can be epitaxiallydeposited on a Si substrate. The method can be grown with very lowchannel doping. Coupled with thin BOX designs, GOI addresses T_(off) andmobility concerns for FD-GOI devices.

Diamond as a semiconductor material has not been commercially exploitedto date. Based on epitaxial techniques discussed above one embodiment ofa semiconductor structure comprises a substrate, one or more singlecrystal layers comprising silicon, germanium, silicon-germaniummixtures, one or more single crystal layers comprising one or morerare-earth ions, and optionally, one or more single crystal diamondlayers. Alternatively, high k dielectrics, silicon oxide, siliconoxy-nitride, silicon nitride and alumina layers may comprise a portionof a structure; alternatively, piezoelectric layers may comprise aportion of a structure. Piezoelectric may be comprised, optionally, ofrare-earth ions, mixtures of lead-zirconium-titanate,barium-strontium-titanate, other titanate mixtures or mixtures thereofas well as other mixtures known to one knowledgeable in the art.

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdregion is of a measureable different orientation than the first region;for instance, optionally, (111) or (100) or (110) and within ±10° of thechosen orientation for the first region and something different than thechosen orientation for the second region. In some embodiments a solidstate device of the instant invention has a composition of the first andthird regions comprising at least one group IV element; for instance,optionally, carbon or silicon or germanium or silicon carbide orsilicon-germanium. In some embodiments a solid state device of theinstant invention has a composition of the first region comprising analuminum-oxygen compound such as sapphire. In some embodiments a solidstate device of the instant invention has a composition of the thirdregion comprising at least one group III and at least one group Vcompound; for instance, optionally gallium nitride or aluminum nitride.In some embodiments a solid state device of the instant invention has astructure wherein a first region is silicon or sapphire, a second regionis a rare-earth compound and the third region is gallium nitride. Insome embodiments a solid state device of the instant invention has acomposition of the third region comprising at least one group II and atleast one group VI compound. A key and novel concept of the instantinvention is that by interposing a rare-earth compound between asubstrate and a third layer the orientation of a third layer may be ameasurable amount different than the original substrate or first region.

The present invention further teaches a class of rare-earth materialssuitable for single crystal dielectrics and/or conductors; specifically,the materials of rare-earth metal oxide (REO_(x)), rare-earth metalnitride, rare-earth metal phosphide, rare-earth metal oxynitride(REO_(x)N_(y)) and rare-earth metal oxy-phosphide (REO_(x)P_(y)) glassesand or crystalline material and mixtures thereof; in some embodiments asmany as three different rare-earths may be present; varying proportionsof O, N and P may be present; and combinations of C, Si, Ge and Si—Gemixtures may be present; a generalized formula representing the class is[Z]_(u)[RE1]_(y)[RE2]_(w)[RE3]_(x)[J1]_(y)[J2], wherein [RE] is chosenfrom a group comprising the lanthanide series plus yttrium; [Z] ischosen from a group comprising carbon, silicon, germanium and SiGemixtures, [J1] and [J2] are chosen from a group comprising Oxygen (O),Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P), and 0≦u, v, w, z≦5, and 0<x, y≦5. Arare-earth metal is chosen from the group commonly known in the periodictable of elements as the lanthanide series or Lanthanum (La), Cerium(Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Promethium (Pm), Samarium (Sm),Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium(Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb) and Luthium (Lu) andadditionally Yttrium.

In some embodiments an epi-Twist construct is applied to substrates of ahexagonal orientation such as sapphire or III-V compounds such as of theGaAs or GaN families to enable a non-hexagonal epitaxial growth, forinstance of silicon or other group IV material. Alternatively, arare-earth epi-twist layer enables growth of a hexagonal layer ofdifferent orientation than a hexagonal substrate. In some embodiments asubstrate of cubic orientation is utilised in combination with anappropriate rare-earth compound to enable growth of a hexagonal ortetragonal compound; for example gallium nitride on a rare-earthepi-twist layer on a silicon substrate or layer.

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a hexagonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type. Optionally, thecomposition of the second region is chosen from a composition describedby [Z]_(u)[RE1]_(v)[RE2]_(w)[RE3]_(x)[J1]_(y)[J2], wherein [RE] ischosen from a group comprising the lanthanide series plus yttrium; [Z]is chosen from a group comprising carbon, silicon, germanium and SiGemixtures, [J1] and [J2] are chosen from a group comprising Oxygen (O),Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P), and 0≦u, v, w, z≦5, and 0<x, y≦5.Optionally, the composition of the first region comprises at least onegroup IV element. Optionally, the composition of the third region ischosen from a group comprising Al₂O₃, a group III-V compound or a groupII-VI compound. Optionally, the first crystallographic orientation ischosen from a group comprising (111), (100) and (110) and is within ±5°of the chosen orientation. Optionally, the third crystallographicorientation is chosen from a group comprising (1111), (0001), (11-20),(1-100), (1-210) and (10-10) and is within ±10° of the chosenorientation and is different from the first crystallographicorientation. As used herein the term “crystallographic orientation”shall be inclusive of crystal orientations of a given crystal structuretype as well as different crystal structures such as cubic, e.g.tesseral, or hexagonal, e.g. wurtzite.

In some embodiments a rare-earth layer functions as a gate oxidereplacement; in some embodiments two or more rare-earth layers functionas a dual gate structure with intervening active semiconductor layers.

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a tetragonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type. Optionally, the firstcomposition is chosen from a group comprising Si, Ge, C, ternary alloysof silicon-germanium-carbon and rare-earth carbides, [REC]. Optionally,the third composition is chosen from a group comprising group IVelements and ternary alloys of silicon-germanium-carbon and rare-earthcarbides, [REC].

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a wurtzite type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type. Optionally, the firstcomposition is chosen from a group comprising group IV elements andternary alloys of silicon-germanium-carbon and rare-earth carbides,[REC]. Optionally, the third composition is chosen from a groupcomprising group II-VI elements, including zinc oxide (ZnO),zinc-oxynitride (ZnON), zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO) and III-V elements,including gallium nitride (GaN), and aluminum nitride (AlN).

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a hexagonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a zinc-blende type. Optionally, thethird composition is chosen from a group comprising Si(111), Ge(111),c-axis GaN and c-axis ZnO. Optionally, the first composition is chosenfrom a group comprising gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP),indium arsenide (InAs), cadmium telluride (CdTe), zinc telluride (ZnTe),indium-gallium-arsenide-nitride (InGaAsN), indium antimonide (InSb), andalloys thereof.

In some embodiments of a solid state device comprising more than onelayer a rare-earth layer enables a structure or orientation change byinducing strain in the various layers. In one example, ZnO is typicallywurtzite or hexagonal. Under high pressure it transforms to rock-salt orcubic structure. This occurs when ZnO is deposited upon aSi(111)/REOx/structure; a first layer is Si (111); a second layer isREOx in a bibyite structure. A strained thin film ZnO is grownepitaxially below the critical thickness limit such that highly strainedand low defect ZnO is deposited as layer or region three. The highstrain causes the ZnO rock salt phase to be favored. In an optionalembodiment a strained structure is grown with alternating layers of arare-earth compound and a semiconductor compound; for exampleSi/REOx/ZnO/REOx/ZnO/, with Si initially, followed by a multi-layerstructure of REOx/ZnO, optionally as a superlattice.

As used herein a solid state device is chosen from a group comprisingfield effect transistors, multiple gate field effect transistors,vertical gate field effect transistors, electronic memories, magneticsensors and storage, semiconductor optical amplifiers, semiconductorphoto-detectors, semiconductor lasers, bipolar transistors, CMOSdevices, light emitting devices, solar cell and/or photo-voltaic devicesand thermoelectric devices. Combinations of the above in an integratedcircuit type device are included.

In some embodiments a solid state device compris3s a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is different from the firstcrystallographic orientation; optionally, the first and thirdcompositions comprise at least one group IV element; optionally, thefirst composition comprises Al₂O₃; optionally, the third compositioncomprises at least one group III-V compound; optionally, the thirdcomposition comprises at least one group II-VI compound; optionally, thesecond composition is described by[Z]_(u)[RE1]_(v)[RE2]_(w)[RE3]_(x)[J1]_(y)[J2], wherein [RE] is chosenfrom a group comprising the lanthanide series plus yttrium; [Z] ischosen from a group comprising carbon, silicon, germanium and SiGemixtures, [J1] and [J2] are chosen from a group comprising Oxygen (O),Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P), and 0≦u, v, w, z≦5, and 0<x, y≦5;optionally, the solid state device comprises at least one chosen from agroup comprising field effect transistors, multiple gate field effecttransistors, vertical gate field effect transistors, electronicmemories, magnetic sensors and storage, semiconductor opticalamplifiers, semiconductor photo-detectors, semiconductor lasers, bipolartransistors, CMOS devices, light emitting devices, solar cells,photo-voltaic devices and thermoelectric devices; optionally, the firstcrystallographic orientation is chosen from a group comprising (111),(100) and (110) and is within about ±5° of the chosen orientation;optionally, the third crystallographic orientation is chosen from agroup comprising (111), (100) and (110) and is within about ±10° of thechosen orientation and is different from the first crystallographicorientation.

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a hexagonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type; optionally, the secondcomposition is described by[Z]_(u)[RE1]_(v)[RE2]_(w)[RE3]_(x)[J1]_(y)[J2], wherein [RE] is chosenfrom a group comprising the lanthanide series plus yttrium; [Z] ischosen from a group comprising carbon, silicon, germanium and SiGemixtures, [J1] and [J2] are chosen from a group comprising Oxygen (O),Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P), and 0≦u, v, w, z≦5, and 0<x, y≦5;optionally, the first composition comprises at least one group IVelement; optionally, the third composition is chosen from a groupcomprising Al₂O₃, a group III-V compound and a group II-VI compound;optionally, the first crystallographic orientation is chosen from agroup comprising (111), (100) and (110) and is within ±5° of the chosenorientation; optionally, the third crystallographic orientation ischosen from a group comprising (1111), (0001), (11-20), (1-100), (1-210)and (10-10) and is within ±10° of the chosen orientation.

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a tetragonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type; optionally, the firstcomposition is chosen from a group comprising Si, Ge, C, ternary alloysof silicon-germanium-carbon and rare-earth carbides, [REC; optionally,the third composition is chosen from a group comprising group IVelements, binary and ternary alloys of silicon-germanium-carbon andrare-earth carbides, [REC].

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a wurtzite type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a cubic type; optionally, the firstcomposition is chosen from a group comprising group IV elements, binaryand ternary alloys of silicon-germanium-carbon and rare-earth carbides,[REC]; optionally, the third composition is chosen from a groupcomprising group II-VI elements, including zinc oxide (ZnO),zinc-oxynitride (ZnON), zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO) and III-V elements,including gallium nitride (GaN), and aluminum nitride (AlN).

In some embodiments a solid state device comprises a structurecomprising; a first region substantially single crystal of firstcrystallographic orientation and first composition; a second regionsubstantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation andsecond composition; and a third region substantially single crystal ofthird crystallographic orientation and third composition separated fromthe first region by the second region; wherein the second regioncomprises at least one rare-earth metal compound such that the thirdcrystallographic orientation is a hexagonal type and the firstcrystallographic orientation is a zinc-blende type; optionally, thethird composition is chosen from a group comprising Si(111), Ge(111),c-axis GaN and c-axis ZnO; optionally, the first composition is chosenfrom a group comprising gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP),indium arsenide (InAs), cadmium telluride (CdTe), zinc telluride (ZnTe),indium-gallium-arsenide-nitride (InGaAsN), indium antimonide (InSb), andmixtures thereof.

It will be understood that when an element as a layer, region orsubstrate is referred to as being “on” or “over” or “adjacent” anotherelement, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elementsmay also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to asbeing “directly on” or “directly over” or “in contact with” anotherelement, there are no intervening elements present. It will also beunderstood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or“coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled tothe other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast,when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or“directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elementspresent. As used herein, “transparent barrier layer” or “transparent” or“reflective” in general applies to at least some portion of the solarspectrum; a “transparent layer” or “reflective layer” need not betransparent or reflective to the entire solar spectra; rathertransparent or reflective to a portion of the spectra qualifies astransparent and reflective.

The foregoing described embodiments of the invention are provided asillustrations and descriptions. They are not intended to limit theinvention to a precise form as described. In particular, it iscontemplated that functional implementation of invention describedherein may be implemented equivalently in various combinations or otherfunctional components or building blocks. Other variations andembodiments are possible in light of above teachings to oneknowledgeable in the art of semiconductors, thin film depositiontechniques, and materials; it is thus intended that the scope ofinvention not be limited by this Detailed Description, but rather byclaims following. All patents, patent applications, and other documentsreferenced herein are incorporated by reference herein in their entiretyfor all purposes.

1. A solid state device comprising a structure comprising; a first semiconductor region substantially single crystal of first crystallographic orientation and first composition; a second region substantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation and second composition; and a third semiconductor region substantially single crystal of third crystallographic orientation and third composition separated from the first region by the second region; wherein the second region is in contact with the first and third regions and comprises a rare-earth metal compound such that the third crystallographic orientation is different from the first crystallographic orientation and wherein the first and third compositions are not the same and the second composition is described by [RE1]_(u)[RE2]_(v)[J1]_(x)[J2]_(y) wherein [RE] is chosen from a group consisting of the lanthanide series plus yttrium; [J1] and [J2] are chosen from a group consisting of Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P), and 0≦v, y≦5, and 0<u, x≦5 wherein the composition of the second region proximate the first region is different from the composition of the second region proximate the third region.
 2. A solid state device of claim 1 wherein the second region introduces a predetermined strain into the first and third regions and the strain in the second region proximate the first region is different from the strain in the second region proximate the third region.
 3. A solid state device of claim 1 wherein the composition of the first or third region is chosen from Group III-V elements.
 4. A solid state device of claim 1 wherein the first or third composition is chosen from a group consisting of Group II-VI elements, zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc-oxynitride (ZnON) and zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO).
 5. A solid state device of claim 1 wherein the solid state device comprises at least one device chosen from a group consisting of field effect transistors, multiple gate field effect transistors, vertical gate field effect transistors, electronic memories, magnetic sensors and storage, semiconductor optical amplifiers, semiconductor photo-detectors, semiconductor lasers, bipolar transistors, CMOS devices, light emitting devices, solar cells, photo-voltaic devices and thermoelectric devices.
 6. A solid state device comprising a structure comprising; a first semiconductor region substantially single crystal of first crystallographic orientation and first composition; a second region substantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation and second composition chosen from a group consisting of the lanthanide series plus yttrium, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus; and a third semiconductor region substantially single crystal of third crystallographic orientation and third composition separated from the first region by the second region; wherein the second region is in contact with the first and third regions and the first, second and third crystallographic orientations are different and wherein the first, second and third compositions are different such that the composition of the second region proximate the first region is different from the composition of the second region proximate the third region and the second region compositions are chosen such that the second region introduces a predetermined strain into the first and third regions and the strain in the first region is different from the strain in the third region.
 7. A solid state device of claim 6 wherein the composition of the first or third region is chosen from Group IV elements.
 8. A solid state device of claim 6 wherein the composition of the first or third region is chosen from Group III-V elements.
 9. A solid state device of claim 6 wherein the composition of the first or third region is chosen from a group consisting of Group II-VI elements, zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc-oxynitride (ZnON) and zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO).
 10. A solid state device comprising a structure comprising; a first semiconductor region substantially single crystal of first crystallographic orientation and first composition; a second region substantially single crystal of second crystallographic orientation and second composition chosen from a group consisting of the lanthanide series plus yttrium, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus; and a third semiconductor region substantially single crystal of third crystallographic orientation and third composition separated from the first region by the second region; wherein the second region is in contact with the first and third regions and the first, second and third crystallographic orientations are different and wherein the first, second and third compositions are different such that the composition of the second region proximate the first region is different from the composition of the second region proximate the third region and the second region compositions are chosen such that the second region introduces a predetermined strain into the first and third regions and the strain in the first region is different from the strain in the third region and the compositions of the first and third regions are chosen from a group consisting of Group II, III, IV, V, VI elements, zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc-oxynitride (ZnON) and zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO). 